0169-8629 5223-01750 by Karol Szymkowiak

The book is a reflection on the situation of Powidzkie Lake - the cleanest lake in Poland, adjacent to the military airport in Powidz, at which the largest U.S. military base in Poland is being expanded, making the place a strategic target in case of war.

In mid-2023, experts from the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management recorded a new visibility record on Powidzkie Lake, 10.38 meters of water transparency vertically down. The largest lake in Greater Poland has thus been named the cleanest in the country. The basin is under a silence zone. It has a well-developed flora and fauna and has long remained a popular leisure and recreation spot.

A parallel reality unfolds in the lake's immediate vicinity. Only a few kilometers away, in 1953 and during the Cold War, the Soviets commenced constructing a military airbase, and to this day, it remains Poland's most immense military airfield. A few years ago, the Pentagon revealed a top-secret Strategic Air Command Nuclear Weapons Requirements Study for 1959. Among the approximately 2,300 targets within the Eastern Bloc countries and China that the U.S. Strategic Air Command aimed to bomb with nuclear weapons should World War III break out also stands the Powidz airport. The target number was 0169-8629 5223-01750.

It currently houses the 33rd Airlift Base, accommodating, among others, large C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. Powidz is also home to at least a thousand U.S. troops. In 2023, a new LTESM-C logistics and equipment complex opened on the land adjacent to the base for long-term storage and repair of U.S. Army equipment. So far, around 100 hectares of forest have disappeared for the base expansion, some of which lie within the Natura 2000 area and the Powidz Landscape Park. Wide roads and roundabouts capable of accommodating heavy equipment emerged in places that a few years ago only saw field tracks. Near the base, service points addressed to American soldiers open continuously. The MSA combat assets depot, DABS mobile airbase system storage facilities, and a BFS fuel depot are also under construction.

Such investments have resulted in the Powidz facility becoming a vast aviation, logistics, and equipment complex and a leading European NATO base, certainly listed as a strategic target, yet obviously of a different superpower than before. The airport, the base, the forests, the surrounding villages, and the lake received a new number. 

Photographic Publication of the Year 2025 - FotoFestiwal Łódź

Honorable Mention

PhotoBook Journal - reviews by Gerhard Clausing